Topic: Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison - page 4. (Read 50097 times)

Did he explicitly require that activity for participation? Just because it was thought by some to be an optimal medium for that activity, doesn't mean it was there for that explicit purpose. It was a website using TOR. TOR was created by the military. Neither the inventor of websites, nor the inventor of TOR created them for the purpose of illegal activity. If he was a fan of that activity, that also doesn't make it any more illegal than the publications available under the protection of the First Ammendment. If he participated in the activity of selling illicit goods and/or services, that would be another matter. Besides, these goods and services are not illicit everywhere his website served. His biggest mistake was being a US citizen.

I have been hearing rumors that his life sentence would be lessened to 50 years.
I do not know if this is true.
Anyways I am also wondering what are the donation money being used for since no change has been done to the verdict after several attempts of appealing.

He was running a website with the explicit purpose of selling illegal goods and services

Capitalism goes hand in hand with democracy and the diversified money flow helps to stem many failed ideas from growing too large.  Where as a large centralised monetised form of government is a snake with two heads and hard to stop no matter how wrong it becomes, not that I oppose government but unrestrained in its funding they can make gigantic mistakes that wider society still has to pay for since money can never be free but is nationally diverted labour and production.   At the moment they borrow and that cost is bought from abroad but eventually it will not pay for itself but cost others lost purchasing power on their dollar etc

How the banks are punished is that when their loans do not repay, that business fails and no longer exists.  Working parts are passed onto more steady hands to manage and pay off debt.   That is the cost of capital that you lose ownership if your efforts are not profitable to justify the ideas and setup used.   The main reason this didnt happen is the banks were acting on a government scheme and it was government who had been wrong in encouraging what was a failed idea, so they diverted what should have been a collapse of that idea.   Comparatively if bitcoin had a fatal flaw or if mt.gox was propped up by Ulbricht it would be a nonsense, but I imagine with enough money diverted he may have done it.  People would hate that idea but thats basically the dollar system, lopsided to rely on certain ideas to balance the books and nobody dares challenge that weakness or deal with its failure

No concern at all, he knew what he was doing and in the end the same thing that has fallen many men, fell him, arrogance and greed.  He thought we could be beyond the laws in some libertarian fantasy.  In reality, there are states, laws, policy, instinct and common sense.  He is no hero or martyr.  Just another ego that got out of control.  

-D

If the allegations of the murder for hire are true, then yes.

Remember this is a guy who both experimented with drugs in high school and passed an Eagle Scout board of review.

The two of those are not easy to do, the former usually precludes the latter - at least when I was in scouts. He's good at fooling people.

This guy shouldn't go to prison for life.